44 special Brinell

[Buckeyeguy]

Hello Folks, first post after lurking for many moons. I shoot 44 special in a Ruger gp100 mainly shoot 200 grain 12 brinellcoated rnfp loads at around 850. I have been gifted around 1300 of the same boolit but at 18 brinell. Will the fact that I don’t shoot them at magnum velocities cause any issues with accuracy? Never shot that hard in cast so just hoping the folks here with way more knowledgeable can chime in.

Thanks for any help
Dave

[onelight]

Welcome , that's harder than I like but load up a few and see if they shoot clean . 1300 boolits is a nice gift I would find a way to send them down range .

[Chill Wills]

Welcome to the forum!


The hardness won't be a problem by itself.
Jacketed bullet jacket metal is at least 40 BHN and more - I know, a somewhat different deal as a jacket.
The diameter and fit of your new found bullets will be the real story. I say load and shoot. If large enough I think you will be fine.

[winelover]

I've been shooting up commercial cast 240 RNPF in my CA Bulldog. The BHN is harder than I like, and the bullets are smaller (.430) than I would normally use. Commercial lube is too hard, also. I tumble lube them and get no leading.

Winelover

[Larry Gibson]

As mentioned, if commercial bullets with the hard wax lube, leading may be a problem. TL them with LLA using a thin coat and let dry completely before loading. That has, with 99% of the commercial hard cast bullets, solved the leading issue. Accuracy with an appropriate load has always been acceptable to excellent.

[bishopgrandpa]

For years I cast with nothing but lino and used Thompson's Blue Angel lube with no problem in 38 spcl to 44 mag .

[mdi]

Hey Buckeye, welcome! BHN 18 in itself isn't normally a problem. But bullets of too small diameter are. Just for info purposes, measure the diameter of a few. If .430" or larger, good. Load of a couple dozen with your same load and shoot them. If leading and/or accuracy problems show up, use Mr. Gibson's suggestions (post #5)...

[cowboy4evr]

As several posters said , tumble lube them and that will solve most or all of a leading problem from being too hard / and that commercial crayon type lube . Let them dry overnight , should be good to go . Regards Paul

[Buckeyeguy]

I should have mentioned that these are pc coated, took my lunch today and ran out to a friends place and ran some with my load for the softer boolits and my gun seems to like them a lot. They are actually a little more accurate

Thanks again to all who responded.

Dave

[BigAlofPa.]

I had leading in my SW 25-5 45 colt. With lubed bhn 18 and coated. Then i bought some copper plated from Accura outdoors. No leading or copper fouling. I got some BHN 12 coated from Missouri bullet Co. They work good too.

[rintinglen]

Provided that a cast boolit fits your gun properly, boolit hardness seldom has much impact on the amount of leading. For about 10 years, nearly every boolit I sent down range was heat-treated, not merely water dropped but heat treated. BHN ran 25 and up to nearly 30. However, I was using LLA or later, Recluse 45/45/10 and usually two coats, and I seldom had a problem with leading. My boolits were sized to fit my guns, specifically the throats of the cylinders or rifle barrels.

Oh, I heartily second the advice given by Larry Gibson on Lee Liquid Alox as an overcoat to commercially cast, hard lubed boolits. I've been using that trick for 25+ years and it works!